Chapter 35: Following the Lead

Chapter 35: Following the Lead

“We got footage of her time here. The recording is right here,” He offered me a small storage chip that I immediately plugged into the port in my wrist.

I played the video file inside the chip and saw Perry entering the club from the front entrance along with three others, a woman and two men around her age. She was dragged into the club by the woman, but the footage inside showed they were merrily drinking together as they watched the fights.

“Thank you, I’ve got what I came for so, I will be leaving now. Goodbye.”

Just as I turned around, the owner continued, “You’re welcome back if you want to fight again. Watch yourself tonight though, a lot of people lost some good credits betting against you,” He grinned.

Ignoring him, I made my way out of the club and headed back toward the main street, where I met up with Vin and Jane, who soon followed after me.

Vin had a huge smirk on his face while Jane spoke, “So what was going on back there?”

“The boss back there wouldn’t help with finding Perry unless I fought. Here, check this out.” I handed the chip over.

She pulled out a terminal to play the chip. A moment later, she handed it over to Vin for him and his eyes took on a glow.

“So what now? All we got was a few new faces to search for...” Jane said with a frown.

“Use the timestamp to track her from the nearby cameras?” I suggested.

“Won’t work. Places like these would have wiped their footage by now,” Vin answered.

“...” We stood silent for a moment while no new ideas came up.

“Let’s retire for the night. We’ll plan things out first before we search again, no use wearing ourselves out,” I concluded.

The next morning, I repeated my routine in my office and checked out some job applications we received for the few remaining positions.

A college student had applied, seeking an internship that I wasn’t planning on accepting, but my curiosity won over, so I viewed her submitted profile.

Her resume was filled with various extracurricular activities on top of the usual educational background.

Like clockwork, Vin entered into my office.

“We’re ready to depart, whatcha looking at?” He stared down at my terminal in hand, “...You looking for a ‘personal assistant’ or something?”

“It’s not like that... I just wanted to take a look.”

“Hmm, she is pretty, and goes to a good school too.”

“Not like that...Whatever.”

So a good school huh, it would probably be too embarrassing to admit I barely knew if the school was reputable or not. Especially these ones from New North America.

I took another hard look at the school in the background of her picture and compared it to the ones I found online. They all looked the same to me, though.

Wait a second...

“Vin, go get Jane.”

“What? I don’t think you need to get her opinion of your personal assistant candidates, no matter how pretty you think she is.”

“No! Get her to search the schools for their records while we’re in the wasteland.”

Upon returning from our trip to the wasteland, my restored connection immediately picked up a text message from Jane.

*Message me once you’re back. We should meet up.*

I replied with a meeting location and time and returned to the city to finish off the miscellaneous tasks for the day.

When Vin and I showed up at the bar, we designated as our meeting spot; we found Jane arguing with a man twice her size.

“Say that again, bitch.”

“I said to get your fat ugly ass away from me. Your stench is making my drink taste like shit.”

So it is the guy I saw from the security footage back at The Glove.

He wasn’t paying attention to anything but his music, so I walked up to the terminal and plugged into it. There was a lot of junk data and porn, but nothing criminal or related to the missing girl.

Quietly exiting his room, I surveyed the entire house and came to the same conclusion that this place was clean.

With no reason to show myself yet, I left the way I came in and began making my way to the next house.

The house this time was twice the size of the previous one, belonging to the only female companion Perry had been in contact with as far as we saw from the footage.

This place was a lot easier to sneak into, as there were several workers who came in and out of the building as they threw away trash, got some air, or smoked.

I repeated my old tactic and followed one of them back into the residence with the help of my active camouflage.

It was hard to miss the dining room where the servants went in and out of, so I took a break in an empty room to let my stealth unit charge before I headed over.

In the room, I spotted five people sitting around a dining table, an older couple, a young man, and two girls. One of the girls was the one who had led the missing wastelander into The Glove, while the other one was Perry, the missing girl herself, in the flesh.

“Claudia, I hope you’ve been keeping up with your studies despite your...distractions.” The older woman glared at Perry.

“Yes Mom, I’ve been studying with Perry.”

“...Very well, I will be retiring for the night. Good night to you all.”

As the woman exited, I caught sight of the older man giving his daughter a defeated smile and shrugged.

They chatted for a little while more before they disbanded. I watched as Perry and her friend leave hand in hand.

I tailed the two and saw them head into their own rooms on the second floor that were adjacent to each other.

A few seconds later, I knocked on the door Perry went into.

“Claudia? Did you forget something?” The door opened, but she found no one there, so she peeked further into the hallway. “Did I imagine it...?”

After inspecting the hallway, she closed the door and returned to her seat by the desk.

“Perry? From the Wells clan?”

She twitched at my voice and scanned around the room. “Who’s there!?”

“Calm down. Your clan leader, Eugene, sent me,” I answered as I disabled my camouflage.

Her eyes widened as I came into view.

“What, our clan has dealings with corpo black op teams now?”

“No, I’m just a friend. They’re all worried about you. From what I can see, you aren’t being confined or treated badly. Why didn’t you contact anyone?”

“...I messed up...and didn’t want to face them until I corrected my mistakes.”

“Look, they’re really worried about you. You should go back and explain to them your situation. I’m sure they’ll help you.”

“That’ll prove that I’m incompetent!”

I remember seeing this throughout all the workplaces I’ve worked at. People who made mistakes and tried to cover it up or have others take the blame.

“No, being too afraid to ask for help and letting problems grow or persist is what really shows you’re incompetent!”

“...” She looked like she wanted to retort but couldn’t say anything and only pouted.

I took a deep breath before I continued, “Look, this isn’t any of my business. Do you have a phone?” She nodded at my words. “Give me your number and I’ll have someone from your clan call you. Promise me you’ll talk it out with them.”

“...Fine.”